Why don’t they just put together merging practices like the ones Disney uses for their attractions? Have set ratios based on how busy it is to prioritize FL guests. If you made it to the point where you were going 10 or 20 to 1 FL to regular line ratio, you wouldn’t have a FL backup. It would also encourage people waiting in the extremely slow moving and long standby line to buy FL! Then we wouldn’t have enormous FL lines anymore and the park would make more money off FL! Every time I’ve gone to the park I’ve always felt like the ratio of regular line to FL that they let in is way too high, almost 50/50 when the FL line is backed up. And this is coming from someone who has never bought FL and is waiting in the regular line. It just doesn’t seem worth it to still wait in a massive line. Maybe I’d buy it if it was prioritized a bit more. Just saying.

Use the OPAT (One Party At a Time) merge method:

SLOW PERIODS (PHASE I): take one party from regular line, then multiply that number by 4. Take that many people from FL (or the entire FL line, whichever is smaller). For a party of 5 in standby, you would take 20 max from FL.

MODERATE PERIODS (PHASE II): take one party from regular line, multiply that number by 4 and add 10. For a party of 5 you would take 30 people from FL.

BUSY PERIODS (PHASE III): take one party from regular line, and multiply the number by 10, and take the lesser of that number or 90. For a party of 5 in standby, you would take 50 from FL, but for a party of 12 in standby, you would only take 90 from FL.

That’s the formula Disney uses for merging standby and FP on almost all of their E-Ticket attractions, and it tends to work pretty well. These numbers could be tested and adjusted for CP but I’d imagine it would be something similar to keep the FL lines down to a minimum.

^^The way they do it now is fine. Disney rides have much higher capacity. If you pulled 20 FL people for every one person in the Maverick standby line, that would be one group every 3 or 4 dispatches or so (assuming a group of 4). During Halloweekends that would probably be a 12 hour line and you’d need to hand out bathroom passes

Like Robb said, if you’re smart then you won’t wait more than 20 minutes or so with Fastlane. There are plenty of Disney rides that are right in that range too with a Fast Pass (Soarin, Peter Pan, Test Track...).

coasterbill wrote:^^The way they do it now is fine. Disney rides have much higher capacity. If you pulled 20 FL people for every one person in the Maverick standby line, that would be one group every 3 or 4 dispatches or so (assuming a group of 4). During Halloweekends that would probably be a 12 hour line and you’d need to hand out bathroom passes

Like Robb said, if you’re smart then you won’t wait more than 20 minutes or so with Fastlane. There are plenty of Disney rides that are right in that range too with a Fast Pass (Soarin, Peter Pan, Test Track...).

SFMMGeek27 wrote:Why don’t they just put together merging practices like the ones Disney uses for their attractions? Have set ratios based on how busy it is to prioritize FL guests. If you made it to the point where you were going 10 or 20 to 1 FL to regular line ratio, you wouldn’t have a FL backup. It would also encourage people waiting in the extremely slow moving and long standby line to buy FL! Then we wouldn’t have enormous FL lines anymore and the park would make more money off FL! Every time I’ve gone to the park I’ve always felt like the ratio of regular line to FL that they let in is way too high, almost 50/50 when the FL line is backed up. And this is coming from someone who has never bought FL and is waiting in the regular line. It just doesn’t seem worth it to still wait in a massive line. Maybe I’d buy it if it was prioritized a bit more. Just saying.

Use the OPAT (One Party At a Time) merge method:

SLOW PERIODS (PHASE I): take one party from regular line, then multiply that number by 4. Take that many people from FL (or the entire FL line, whichever is smaller). For a party of 5 in standby, you would take 20 max from FL.

MODERATE PERIODS (PHASE II): take one party from regular line, multiply that number by 4 and add 10. For a party of 5 you would take 30 people from FL.

BUSY PERIODS (PHASE III): take one party from regular line, and multiply the number by 10, and take the lesser of that number or 90. For a party of 5 in standby, you would take 50 from FL, but for a party of 12 in standby, you would only take 90 from FL.

That’s the formula Disney uses for merging standby and FP on almost all of their E-Ticket attractions, and it tends to work pretty well. These numbers could be tested and adjusted for CP but I’d imagine it would be something similar to keep the FL lines down to a minimum.

I dunno, bro. I'm sure they have looked into quite a few options and are content on how they have their simple bracelet setups. As simple minded as I am... I like the way it's set up now. The only thing I'd prefer that they do is raise the FL+ prices so less people buy them and they could break even on the cost. That said, I'm sure they have looked at the data quite a bit to determine what price point they sell the passes at and how many to sell in order to maximize profits. Either way, CP seems to be doing well just the way they have it.

AndrewA86 wrote:Quick question, has anyone been able to use their platinum pass to get the fast lane deal for other people?

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When I was there last month, I was able to use my platinum pass to get the fast lane deal for other people at the SV gift shop back in Frontiertown. But when I tried to do the same thing at the marina gate ticket office before the park opened, they would only give the deal for each person who had a platinum pass. Everyone in the group had a platinum pass and I don't know what the rule is supposed to be, so I didn't try to push it or anything, I was just trying to buy the FL+ passes for both me and my GF at the same time and they needed to see both passes.

For what it's worth, the employee in the SV gift shop seemed pretty new while the employee at the ticket office did not.

WolfBobs wrote:Also it's advertised as "Wait LESS, Ride more". Not get on every ride instantly. A 30-45 minute wait compared to 1.5-3 hrs is preferable for most people.

If you purchased a FL+ for any Saturday from July till end of season expecting to walk on every ride it's valid for you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

I've been to the park on Haunt Saturday's with the FL+ line at Maverick hitting 90 mins. That's still a lot shorter of a wait than the 2-3 hours the stand by line hits.

Cant vouch for others, but as someone who's only used a fast pass once before, I just didn't know. When I think of it, I know I think of the "assigned time" style that limits waits to ya know 10, 15 mins. And when I used it at Busch Gardens, not exactly a quiet park and lines were huge that day, I still had 0-5 min waits with a fast pass. So ya know, if you don't know how it works for the park I think it's fair to say someone would assume its designed to ensure low wait times and 45, 60, 90 mins (while better than 2-3 hours obviously) would catch someone off guard. But of course that's why you research ahead of time! So you do know how it works for the park and aren't caught off guard. Im really not a big planner, but even I don't get how people can travel esp to parks and not know what to expect.

And true, unless you have no choice I don't know why anyone goes to parks between early June and mid august The heat is always too much for me, ya know the crowds will be bad, and a weekend? Why even bother ha Same for any Halloween events, after I went to fright fest once and it was 3 hours for El Toro, never again. I guess its limiting, and may require time off work but I almost never deal with crowds, rarely need a fast pass and never have gripes

I've asked a few ride ops at the park about the fast lane ratio, they said there wasn't one that they are supposed to follow, instead they just make up the ratio and send people as it feels right. This might be a reason why the FL queues back up so much and are so inconsistent. I have used the Platinum Flash Pass at SFMM and Fast Lane Plus at Cedar Point, and I rode over twice as many rides at Cedar Point as I did at Magic Mountain. At Magic Mountain, I rode 16 rides total using the flash pass. At Cedar Point, I rode 32. I'd prefer Cedar Point's system (wait less) over Six Flags' system, (hop right on but only once for the most popular rides) any day. I think FLP at Cedar Point is the perfect system - it allows you to bypass the majority of the lines without inconveniencing other guests too much.

Exactly. No system will ever be perfect but I like Fastlane a lot. The pros and cons you just outlined are just the nature of this system.

People like the Cedar Fair system because you can ride whatever you want, whenever you want an infinite number of times. I agree! That said, since there's no crowd control system (aside from capping the total number of wristbands sold), you might occasionally have to wait. It's a double-edge sword.

Disney and Six Flags can control how many people can scan in for each ride on Fastlane every hour / minute. At Six Flags, 50 people could try to reserve a ride within a few minutes of eachother and the system would stagger their return times. At Cedar point, 50 people would walk right into the Maverick line within a few minutes of eachother and there's no perfect solution. Each train only holds 12 people and if they get right because they heavily prioritize Fastlane when the Fastlane lines back up then they'll walk right back around and the stand-by line would literally never move.

I love Fastlane, but if you love it because of the freedom that it provides you where you can just ride whatever, whenever and not have to schedule a return time then you have to realize that sometimes that means those lines are going to back up. Even when they do, you're still way better off in the Fastlane line than the regular line.

TL;DR: It's an awesome system but just do what Robb said and exercise a little common sense and/or patience.

Agreed Bill. The infinite ride amount is why I wanted it, and its deff nice to have a the freedom of time. I guess I expected the limiting factor to be the # of bands sold. I bought Cedar Point's marketing tooooo well clearly, "Very limited number sold!" And yeah I hope no one is disputing even a 45-60 min wait is better than 120-180. Just if one is uninformed I do get why they would be taken aback, it is quite pricey after all. BUT thing is no one really has an excuse to be uninformed if you're here. Like...why come to a site like this and not take advantage of the info?

All I know is, I bought em, just got the plane tickets and KW tix. All that's left is hotel (which Im going cheap since I don't see a need for early access thanks to FL+) and this trip is done. So stoked